Assessment of Work Related Stress Among Aircraft Crew Members of Ehiopian Air Lines.
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Date
2016-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Work related stress is a state which is accompanied by physical, psychological or
social complaints or dysfunctions and which results from individuals feeling unable to bridge a
gap with the requirements or expectations placed on them. The distinctive feature of the airline
industry is that both aircraft and crew members are required to operate around the clock in order
to maximize causing sleeping difficulties and fatigue.
Objectives: To assess the work related stress among aircraft crew members of Ethiopian
Airlines.
Methods : A Cross-sectional study was done among 385 respondents of aircraft crew members
of Ethiopian airlines in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from April to July 2016. Participants of the study
were selected by using simple random sampling technique. A standard questionnaire from health
and safety executive and international stress management questionnaire were used. Demographic
information, work load and work related stress data of the crew members were collected by self
administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre-tested in similar participants outside of
the study area(i.e. Turkish airlines crew members prior to the actual data collection) and logistic
regression analysis was done.
Results: The overall work related stress among the crew members was 78.2% and the crew
members who attend long flight had work related stress(P-value 0.001;AOR 7.78;95% CI
(1.36-44.2)). The crew members were pressured to work long hours on average 14 hours per day
which was (67.3%) , with maximum 17 hours per day and 6 days (56.4%) per week, 24 days
per month which was (57.9%). Almost all of them had irregular working shifts and experienced
to frequent schedule change (90.7%), attend long flight (93.8%), did not get managerial
encouragement (87.5%), all of them travel internationally for work, experienced unwanted shift
patterns(93.8%), experienced unmanageable work load(86%) and difficulty to get sleep(84.4%).
Conclusion and Recommendation: The results of this study showed that there were increased
in working long hours, fatigue and sleeping difficulty which create a powerful predictor of work
related stress among crew members. Standard supervision is needed to raise the worker well-
being and safety of the crew members.
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Keywords
Work Related, Aircraft, Ethiopian Airlines